A couple of times I had bottles that were not gushers when opened. However, when you poured it, when it hit the glass it would turn 95% foam, which sounds like is the same thing happening here. These were also bottles that had sat around a while. When the foam turned back into beer, it was fine. Perhaps coincidence, but the two times I've had that happen to me they were extract batches.

I never bought into overcarbonation as the culprit because the bottles weren't gushers and the beer was not overly carbonated. My best guess is that, over time, proteins and/or polyphenols precipitated out and generated lots of nucleation sites for the CO2. Both times it happened to me, the beers were dark (one a Southern English Brown, and the other was either a porter or stout), so I didn't notice any obvious chill haze, but I also didn't think to try to look for it either.

In Nov of 2011 I was gearing up to make my first lager, which was going to be for my Dad because he really liked German beers. I finally had my fermentation fridge up and running and I went out and picked up a vial of WL830. My Dad died in February 2012 and I never did make that lager. I've done a number of ales since, but never made the lager. Still have the yeast in my fridge. I am finally going to make the lager in the next month or two, though I'll probably get a new vial instead of trying to grow up what is still alive in that vial.

If the fermenter is not specifically designed to hold pressure, your high-pressure demo would leave the opposite impression on me then you intended. In fact, it would scare the hell out of me because my assumption would be that it would not be designed for holding a significant amount of pressure. I have spent many, many years in laboratories with both large surface area pressure vessels and vacuum vessels.

On the other hand, if they are rated to hold, say, 100 psi, and you are demoing them at 80 psi, my question would then be: why I would ever want my fermenter to be at 80 psi? I would be much more impressed with clear demonstrations of the features I would care about: easy access, easy to clean, easy temperature control, etc.

Also ,it has a myth around it much like Westy 12, because it is so hard to get that the myth only grows bigger.

The graybeards around here may recall back in the halcyon days of the 1970s that it was very hard to get Coors anywhere but Colorado and westwards. A huge mystique built up around it and everybody east of the Mississippi had to get their hands on some. People would go out of their way to bring cases of it back East. I'm sure if they had done that survey back then, Coors definitely would have been on top of the list (though, back then you'd have to had made the list the "Top 10 Beers in the Country" or something like that).

I did find some after all at my local Megamart. I had apparently missed them when trying to sort through the 14 linear feet of Mrs. Dash variations. The ones in the bottle I picked up are very blue/purple. They look like desiccated blueberries.

I've never worked with nibs. What flavors do they impart? Is it an unmistakable chocolate flavor? I know there is all sorts of processing that can be done on nibs to turn them into cocoa powder such as roasting, alkali, etc., that I was wondering whether you get a lot of chocolate-ness out of it or whether it imparts other unique flavors. In other words, if I want a definite chocolate taste, do nibs give you that or are you better off going with something like a chocolate malt or using cocoa powder. This is probably too general of a question because, like coffee, I'm sure it is very dependent upon the cocoa pod, where it comes from, and how it's handled.

If you have the yeast, you could also brew a small batch, let it ferment on its own, then blend the two together after they're done. On the other hand, for my setup at least, brewing a large batch isn't much more work than brewing a small batch, so I would be inclined to leave the 7 gallons alone and brew 10 gallons of the same beer again after the first one finished.

I need juniper berries for a sauerbraten recipe, but they are not easy to find at the local Megamart. The bit of looking I've done says that they are ripe when they are blue to purple, and people seem to harvest them in September/October. It apparently takes three years to get to the ripe stage, and plants will have a mixture of berries in various stages of development.

You need to pick them from the right species of plant. A few are poisonous and a lot others are nasty tasting. I don't know enough to know the difference between species, so I'm still looking locally for some from a store, but I just might have to order some from an on-line spice house.